Strother Martin | |
|---|---|
 Martin inMcLintock! (1963) | |
| Born | Strother Douglas Martin Jr. (1919-03-26)March 26, 1919 Kokomo, Indiana, U.S. |
| Died | August 1, 1980(1980-08-01) (aged 61) |
| Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park,Hollywood Hills |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1950–1980 |
| Spouse | |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Navy |
| Years of service | 1942–1946 |
| Rank | Petty officer third class |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
Strother Douglas Martin Jr. (March 26, 1919 – August 1, 1980) was an Americancharacter actor who often appeared in support ofJohn Wayne andPaul Newman and inWestern films directed byJohn Ford andSam Peckinpah.
Among Martin's memorable performances is his portrayal of the warden or "captain" of a state prison camp in the 1967 filmCool Hand Luke, in which he utters the line "What we've got here is failure to communicate."[1] The line is number 11 on theAmerican Film Institute list of100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.
Martin was born March 26, 1919,[2] inKokomo, Indiana to Ethel (née Dunlap) and Strother Douglas Martin.[3] For a short time, the Martins lived inSan Antonio, Texas, but soon returned to Indiana. As a child, he excelled atswimming anddiving. He was nicknamed "T-Bone Martin" because of his diving expertise. At 17 he won the National Junior Springboard Diving Championship. He served as a swimming instructor in theUnited States Navy duringWorld War II and was a member of the diving team at theUniversity of Michigan inAnn Arbor, Michigan. He entered the adult National Springboard Diving competition in hopes of gaining a berth on the U.S. Olympic team, but finished third in the competition.[4]
After the war, Martin moved toLos Angeles and worked as a swimming instructor and as a swimming extra in water scenes in films, including the 1950crime dramaThe Damned Don't Cry.[4] He earned bit roles in a number of pictures and soon gained frequent character roles in films and television through the 1950s, having appeared in such programs as theWesternanthology seriesFrontier onNBC and thesyndicatedAmerican Civil War dramaGray Ghost. He was cast in 1955 as Landry Kersh in the episode "Shadow of God" on theABC religionanthology seriesCrossroads. Martin also portrays a man with learning difficulties in "Cooter", an episode written bySam Peckinpah in 1956 for the first season of the long-runningWestern seriesGunsmoke. He had many various, and prominent, roles throughout the entire series. The next year on that series he played the character "Dillard" in "The Constable".
Martin appeared in the firstBrian Keith series,Crusader, aCold War drama onCBS. He guest-starred as circus tightrope walker Dooley Delaware in the 1957 episode "High Wire" of CBS'Have Gun - Will Travel. He portrayed a henpecked soldier in a 1958 episode of the syndicated Western seriesBoots and Saddles and starred in aTrackdown episode, "A Stone for Benny French". That same year, he played the lead in the episode "Pete Henke" of NBC's WesternJefferson Drum.
In 1959, Martin played Polk, withDenver Pyle as Houston, in the episode "No Place to Stop" of the CBS Western series,The Texan, starringRory Calhoun as Bill Longley.[5]: 408 In another 1959 Western series, Martin was cast as Deputy Jess in the episode "Johnny Yuma" of ABC'sThe Rebel, starringNick Adams. He played land surveyor Meeker in "Rawhide" S2 E8 "Incident of the Haunted Hills" which aired 11/5/1959. Also, in 1959 on the Western TV series Lawman, Season 2 E8, he played Jack Foley. In 1960, Martin guest-starred inJames Whitmore's ABCcrime drama,The Law and Mr. Jones.
In 1961, Martin portrayed Pete Gibson in the episode "The Case of the Brazen Bequest" onPerry Mason. In 1962, he was cast as Harold Horton in "The Chocolate Cake Caper" of the CBS sitcom,Pete and Gladys, starringHarry Morgan andCara Williams. He guest-starred inJack Lord's ABC adventure/drama series,Stoney Burke. In 1963, he was cast as Private Anton Copang in the episode "Walk Through the Badlands" of the ABC/Warner Brothers Western series,The Dakotas. In 1966, Martin appeared twice as "Cousin Fletch" in the short-lived ABC comedy WesternThe Rounders, withRon Hayes,Patrick Wayne, andChill Wills.
In 1967, Martin playedArizona minerEd Schieffelin in the episode "Silver Tombstone" of thesyndicatedtelevision seriesDeath Valley Days.[5]: 126–128 Martin played villainous roles in many of the best-known Westerns of the 1950s and 1960s, includingThe Horse Soldiers andThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. He played an Indian agent in the John Wayne film,McLintock! (1963) and a horse trader in the 1969 film,True Grit (1969).
By the late 1960s, Martin was almost as well-known a figure as many top-billed stars. In 1967, the same year as his role inCool Hand Luke, he appeared in the episode "A Mighty Hunter Before the Lord" of NBC'sThe Road West series starringBarry Sullivan. In 1972, he appeared asJames Garner's uncle in the "Zacharia" episode of NBC'sNichols. He also had a pronounced physical and vocal resemblance to playwrightTennessee Williams and occasionally parodied him, notably in the "Baby Fat" episode ofThe Dick Van Dyke Show.
The playThe Time of Your Life was revived on March 17, 1972, at theHuntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles with Martin,Henry Fonda,Richard Dreyfuss,Gloria Grahame,Lewis J. Stadlen,Ron Thompson,[6]Jane Alexander,Richard X. Slattery, andPepper Martin among the cast withEdwin Sherin directing.[7][8]
Martin appeared in all three of the classic Westerns released in 1969:Sam Peckinpah'sThe Wild Bunch (as Coffer, a bloodthirsty bounty hunter),George Roy Hill'sButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (as Percy Garris, the "colorful" Bolivian mine boss who hires the two title characters), andHenry Hathaway'sTrue Grit (as Colonel Stonehill, a horse dealer). He frequently acted alongsideL. Q. Jones, who in real life was one of his closest friends.
Though he usually appeared in supporting roles, he had major parts inHannie Caulder (1971),The Brotherhood of Satan (1971),[9]Pocket Money (1972) withPaul Newman and Lee Marvin, and in the horror filmSSSSSSS (1973). Martin later appeared in anotherGeorge Roy Hill film,Slap Shot (1977), again with Paul Newman, as the cheap general manager of the Charlestown Chiefs hockey club. He appeared six times each with John Wayne and Paul Newman. In an interview originally published inMovietone News in 1981, Martin commented on his professional relationship with both Wayne and Newman:
[Paul] never says so, but he cast me inButch Cassidy. I wasn't told until duringSlap Shot the director said...Back when they were getting ready to doButch, George Roy Hill said, "I've got these three people for Percy Garris: Strother Martin..." and Paul said, "Don't go any farther." But he never mentioned that to me, he never said "I got you this job." Now if it was John Wayne [chuckles] he would have said in front of 2,000 people [drawling emphatically] "I gotcha this job!"...[10]
Martin can also be seen inCheech and Chong'sUp in Smoke (1978) as Arnold Stoner, the father ofTommy Chong's character Anthony.
Martin made many guest appearances onGunsmoke including the two-part episode "Island in the Desert", in which he portrayed a crazy desert hermit named Ben Snow. Previously, he guest-starred as Marv Rowley in the 1961Gunsmoke episode "Tall Trapper" playing an angry man who murders his wife out of jealousy then tries to pin the killing on a quiet, respectful trapper who his wife fell for.
He also made many guest appearances onPerry Mason throughout the nine-year run from 1957 to 1966, including a horseman in the 1962 episode "The Case of the Fickle Filly", a college employee in "The Case of the Brazen Bequest", and as Gerald Sommers in "The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito". In 1963, he appeared inGlynis Johns' short-lived comedy seriesGlynis in the episode "Ten Cents a Dance". In 1965, Martin appeared in the episode "Most Precious Gold" of the NBC comedy/drama seriesKentucky Jones, starringDennis Weaver. In 1965, he guest-starred as Meeker in the episode "Return to Lawrence" on the ABC WesternThe Legend of Jesse James. In 1966, he guest-starred in theLost In Space episode "Blast Off Into Space" as a gritty mining engineer named Nerim. On aGilligan's Island episode, Martin played a man living supposedly alone on the island for a radio show contest. In 1973–1974, he was a regular cast member of theJames Stewart legal drama and murder mystery seriesHawkins. He also starred in a two-partThe Rockford Files 1977 episode as T.T. Flowers "The Trees, the Bees and T. T. Flowers", an episode that took on urban invasion and the environment.
One of his last acting jobs was as host ofSaturday Night Live on April 19, 1980. In one of the skits, Martin played the strict owner of a French language camp for children, based on his role as the prison captain fromCool Hand Luke. He even paraphrased his most famous line from the film, "What we have here is failure to communicate BILINGUALLY!" In another, he played a terminally ill man who videotaped his last will and testament. During his monologue, he again did his Tennessee Williams impression. That episode was supposed to be rerun during the summer of 1980, but it was pulled and replaced with another episode due to Martin's death.
Martin was married to Helen Meisels-Martin from 1967 until his death; they had no children. In the last few years of his life, Martin was under a doctor's care for diabetes and cardiac problems. After attending a dinner at a Beverly Hills hotel, he awoke early the next morning (August 1, 1980) at his home inAgoura, California, with chest pains and died of aheart attack at age 61[11] atLos Robles Regional Medical Center inThousand Oaks, California.[12]
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